


Woe of an Apprentice

by Solariac



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Light Angst, Not Beta Read, Post-Episode: s01e18 Agony of a Witch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:27:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26181124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Solariac/pseuds/Solariac
Summary: After the fight between Lilith and Eda draws to an unsatisfactory close, Luz grieves.
Relationships: Eda Clawthorne & Hooty & King & Luz Noceda, Eda Clawthorne & Luz Noceda
Comments: 1
Kudos: 45





	Woe of an Apprentice

_"Alright kid, listen to me."_

This didn't just happen. It _couldn't_ have happened, not like this. She could only watch as the literal bridge between her and the castle, her and _Eda_ grew further and further apart. Lilith's unwelcoming yet triumphant gaze met her own, yet Luz's feet remained glued to the spot. Their forms only grew smaller as the bridge continued to pull back towards its source. 

_What had she done?_ This chain of events bad all started because of _her._

_"I'm going away, and I don't know if I can bounce back this time."_

Eda, or what was _supposed_ to be Eda, screeched raucously, drawing her attention back to the present once more. Her beastly scream tore violently through Luz's ears, making it nearly impossible to return to her own thoughts. Instinctively, Luz reached into her pocket to grab out a spell, _any_ spell that could give her a fighting chance of _seeing_ the witch who had been taken away. 

...Taken away because of her own carelessness _,_ her own _negligence_.

The spell crumpled slightly in her hands before her grip slackened altogether, the paper soon slipping out of her hands and twirling away in the open breeze.

_"Watch over King, remember to feed Hooty, and Luz…"_

That's right. Luz hasn't even known Eda for more than what, a few months? Yet the surprisingly kind witch was willing to throw away her own life in order to save some human kid who waltzed through a portal. She had _trusted_ Luz with everything, and look where that got her. Her true form was lost for what could be forever, bound by magical chains, and dragged away to a place she never wanted any part of.

Luz collapsed to her knees as the door to the emperor's castle shut with a resounding bang. The other end of the bridge was gone, and Eda had been locked away with it. Eda would, _should,_ be home with King and Hooty. She didn't have to rescue Luz and throw away her own freedom that she had already been fighting for. _Why did she have to go after the hat that laid in the heart of the enemy?_ It was a quick decision that nearly got herself killed, let alone her guardian and mentor captured instead.

Responsibility was never something she found herself good at handling, but now there wasn't much of a choice. Before Eda had turned into the owl beast, she had entrusted everything of importance to Luz. She shouldn't have to have done that. This wasn't how things were supposed to go.

What could she do now though? If she could cross the gap and somehow get inside, that would only be a crumb of the major problem. Lilith is one thing, but _Belos?_ Eda had lost to Lilith, and she was a talented and powerful witch. _And I'm only human,_ her mind had uselessly supplied as she stared at her own scuffed palms.

_"Thank you for being in my life."_

Closed fists slammed against the stone ground beside her. The pain within her own hands hardly registered as she bit down on the inside of her cheek hard enough to draw blood. One of the rocks that had been made from the fight just minutes earlier teetered on the edge of the stone thanks to the vibration. Without an ounce of hesitation, Luz snatched the rock in one hand and seized yet another of her few remaining glyphs from her pocket with the other. 

An infuriated scream ripped from her throat as she covered the rock with the glyph and hurled it out into the open air. As soon as it left her hand, light emitted from the activated spell, causing the rock to burst into magic-induced flames. Though it did manage to soar through the sky a fair distance, the blazing piece of rubble fell before it had the chance to close even half of the gap between her and the castle door. Despite her sudden efforts, the flame had uselessly fizzled out, and the sound of a rock clattering against the spikes echoed in the silence.

An idea crossed her mind to try again with another type of magic in hopes of it ending in a somewhat different result. Maybe multiple spells would work if she just tried it. Surely that would work, as doing something is better than standing around and doing _nothing._ Eda had given everything to save her, so Luz could do the same to get her back.

Her hand closed around the last spells left in her pocket, but out of nowhere she stopped herself.

_No. No, she couldn't. She can't put herself in danger again.That's what got her in this current situation to begin with, and there was no one to save her this time._

It was only then that she took a moment to realise that her hands were shaking. _Was it from fear? Anger? Anxiety?_ There was no way she could pin it on only one source. She wasn't _thinking_ anymore, not since _it_ happened.

_This is all pointless._

If she stayed, she was going to do something rash, something blindingly dumb _again._ No matter how much she didn't want to admit it, Luz had to get help. She had to go _home._

It would be a long road to get back to the owl house, and an even longer one alone. 

* * *

How long had she been walking now? Minutes? Hours? Well, presumably _hours_ had passed considering the sun had dipped entirely below the horizon a while ago. Her own stash of spells had nearly run out as she continued to use what she had left to ward off possible predators lurking in the forest around her. 

No matter how much time had truly passed, it was too much time to be by herself in her own opinion. Too much time to think, too much time to grieve, too much time to plan out actions that would easily fail before her own eyes. The only company she had were the last words (should she call them that?) of Eda repeating like a mantra within her own head, and the dim twinkling of the stars in the darkened night skies above.

Luz thought about turning around and heading back for various reasons already. Begging, pleading, or exchanging herself for Eda crossed her mind more than it ever should. Not like that would matter though, why would they need a lowly human more than a covenless witch? Irrational thoughts plagued her mind every other minute, each of them getting harder to ignore every time they popped up. 

Exhaustion tugged at her limbs the longer she walked down the dirt path of the forest. Being both physically and emotionally worn down made it difficult to trek all the way back home, but she knew she had no other option. First and foremost, King and Hooty needed to know about what happened. There was no one else in the Boiling Isles that _could_ tell them if she gave up now. If Luz wanted any chance of rescuing Eda at all, there was no time to sit and rest. Rest would be a loss of time, and any loss of time could be enough to keep her from seeing Eda ever again. 

What shocked her the most is that after everything, she had yet to shed a single tear. It's not that she wasn't sad or acting tough in the face of a bad situation, she physically _couldn't_ cry. Numbness thrummed through her veins, and no matter how much she wanted to cry, not a single spot of wetness would form in her eyes. The pent up feelings were just stacking higher and higher on her shoulders until it would tower over her, leaving her in what felt like a cold and endless shadow.

Luz feared that if the tower fell, she'd be crushed beneath its weight.

* * *

The sun was rising above the horizon now. It was nearly _morning_. Light trailed in through the forest as the trees finally thinned out to reveal her usual path home. After stumbling through the wilderness of the Boiling Isles for hours on end, the first and longest part of this ordeal was almost over. 

As the owl house drew closer, anxiety began to gnaw away at her consciousness like an unforgiving parasite. Her exhaustion had been temporarily forgotten in exchange for fear as she fought for what she was going to say to King and Hooty. Many options had already been mentally crossed out in favor of another, and the cycle only repeated the more she thought about it.

What was she _supposed_ to say when she got there? _Sorry guys! It's kinda sorta my fault that Eda went after me and used all of her magic so now she's permanently stuck in her owl beast form and is now in the possession of-_ Luz ran her hand through the side of her hair and bit her lip. Of course that wouldn't work. They were going to hate her for letting it happen no matter what she tried to say to them.

Her hand fell from her hair only to emptily swing at her sides. There was no running away now, she was already back to where she should've been after the field trip originally ended. The owl tube yawned sleepily from where he had been resting, his dark eyes innocently blinking up at Luz.

"Oh Luz, there you are!" Hooty greeted as chippy as ever, driving the metaphorical nail further into her gut.

"Hi, Hooty." Luz answered back absently while reaching for the door handle. The door swung open with ease and she stepped inside, Hooty's beady gaze burning holes into her back with every step.

She expected an empty house, but that didn't mean it still didn't _hurt_ when Eda wasn't there to greet her after bickering with King or sometimes Hooty. Everything from the atmosphere to the actual contents of the house just felt wrong without her there. 

Her shadow stretched into the dark living room, the only light coming from the opened door behind her. A short gasp escaped her lips as her sight fell upon the table. On the table remained a large cake accompanied by what looked like something made from cloth with a ribbon neatly tied into a bow around it. Neither of those items had been there when she left.

_Were those supposed to be for her?_

"The cake is me!" The familiar white skull of King bursted out of the top of the cake, his short arms waving in the air as he shattered the uneasy silence. Once his bright yellow and purple eyes started scanning the room, Luz swore that the air around her magically disappeared.

"Hey, um, where's Eda?"

There it was. Of course King had noticed immediately. He probably expected Eda to walk in right after her after she had left alone to confront Lilith. 

Luz froze, her brain completely shutting down when she needed it the most as she fought for something, _anything_ to say after the implications of King's words. She had _nothing_ to say. The hours she had spent planning and pondering on what to tell them went to waste entirely. No words of comfort, no explanation, _nothing._

All at once, the dam broke, and the tower that she had been fearing for hours on end had toppled with it. Tears blurred her vision, and a shaky, unforgiving sob forced its way out of her chest. For the second time in the span of a night, Luz sank to her knees.

Distantly, she could hear the sound of claws tapping against the wooden floors as King ditched the cake and sprinted to her side. Hooty stretched out to comfortingly rest his fluffy head against hers, but that wasn't enough either. Emotions that had been bottled for hours on a never-ending journey home cracked and spilled all over. Strings of apologies that she had needed to say died in her throat as relentless sobs racked her shoulders. A constant stream of tears fell from both of her eyes, dampening both her dirtied sleeves and the floor around her.

This was all her fault. Eda was gone. _Gone._ There's a chance that she'd never see the small family she had acquired over the years again, and it was all her _fault._ She was so stupid for going after the hat. She was even more stupid for getting captured by Lilith. This could've all been avoided if she just _listened_ for once in her life.

It was bad enough that life in her own world was already terrible, but now she had ruined it here too.

_I'm so sorry._

**Author's Note:**

> hhhhhhhh therapy.
> 
> First time writing TOH, and if I didn't finish the draft today it'd probably be in the drafts with the rest of my unfinished fics. Even after watching the s1 finale I'm still not over Agony of a Witch.
> 
> This was mostly a practice run for me in case I want to write more for TOH in the future :^)


End file.
